News Archive

July 18, 2024 / Scott Bordow

9 months into a 6-year journey to a far-flung asteroid, NASA’s Psyche mission cruising along

These days, Lindy Elkins-Tanton is living out a Talking Heads song lyric: She’s keeping her feet on the ground and her head in the sky. Elkins-Tanton, principal investigator of the Arizona...

May 22, 2024 / Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA’s Psyche Fires Up Its Sci-Fi-Worthy Thrusters

NASA’s Psyche spacecraft passed its six-month checkup with a clean bill of health, and there’s no holding back now. Navigators are firing its futuristic-looking electric thrusters, which...

April 25, 2024 / Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA’s Optical Comms Demo Transmits Data Over 140 Million Miles

NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications experiment also interfaced with the Psyche spacecraft’s communication system for the first time, transmitting engineering data to Earth. Riding aboard...

February 8, 2024 / Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA’s New Experimental Antenna Tracks Deep Space Laser

Capable of receiving both radio frequency and optical signals, the DSN’s hybrid antenna has tracked and decoded the downlink laser from DSOC, aboard NASA’s Psyche mission. An experimental...

December 22, 2023 / Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA’s Tech Demo Streams First Video From Deep Space via Laser

The video, featuring a cat named Taters, was sent back from nearly 19 million miles away by NASA’s laser communications demonstration, marking a historic milestone. NASA’s Deep Space Optical...

December 6, 2023 / Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory

Psyche Gamma-Ray Instrument Hums to Life, Marking Next Generation for Space Exploration

Set 6.5 feet (2 meters) away from NASA’s Psyche spacecraft on the tip of a boom, the mission’s gamma-ray spectrometer (GRS) hummed to life on Nov. 6 for the first time since launch in mid-October....
Annotated version of the starfield image with stars labeled.

December 5, 2023 / Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA’s Psyche Delivers First Images and Other Data

The mission team has celebrated several successes since its launch from Kennedy Space Center on Oct. 13, 2023. The latest is the operation of the spacecraft’s cameras. NASA’s Psyche spacecraft...

November 17, 2023 / NASA

NASA’s Deep Space Optical Comm Demo Sends, Receives First Data

DSOC, an experiment that could transform how spacecraft communicate, has achieved ‘first light,’ sending data via laser to and from far beyond the Moon for the first time. NASA’s Deep Space...

October 13, 2023 / NASA

NASA’s Psyche Spacecraft, Optical Comms Demo En Route to Asteroid

NASA’s Psyche spacecraft is on its voyage to an asteroid of the same name, a metal-rich world that could tell us more about the formation of rocky planets. Psyche successfully launched 10:19...

October 12, 2023 / NASA

Weather 40% Favorable for Friday Psyche Launch

Weather officials with Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s 45th Weather Squadron predict a 40% chance of favorable weather conditions for the launch of NASA’s Psyche mission at 10:19 a.m....

October 11, 2023 / NASA

Weather Delays NASA’s Psyche Launch, Now Targeting Oct. 13

NASA and SpaceX are standing down from the Oct. 12 launch of the agency’s Psyche mission due to unfavorable weather conditions. NASA and SpaceX are now targeting launch at 10:19 a.m. EDT Friday,...

October 10, 2023 / Jet Propulsion Laboratory

5 Things to Know About NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications

Editor’s note: This story was updated on Oct. 12, 2023, with a new target launch date. Slated to launch on Oct. 13 with the Psyche mission, DSOC will demonstrate technologies enabling the...